psi-conducive state

A psi-conducive state is a state of consciousness that is believed
to open the door to psi experiences. According to
Daryl J. Bem and Charles Honorton, there is substantial evidence that the
meditative state, the dream state, the
hypnotic state, the sensory deprivation
state, and certain drug-induced states are conducive to psi (1994).

These psi-conducive states, they believe, have in common “reduced sensory input.” Dean
Radin (1997) agrees and thinks that in such states the mind is alert and
receptive to psi. Bem and Honorton write that “psi-mediated information is
conceptualized as a weak signal that is normally masked by internal somatic
and external sensory ‘noise.’ By reducing ordinary sensory input, these
diverse psi-conducive states are presumed to raise the signal-to-noise
ratio, thereby enhancing a person’s ability to detect the psi-mediated
information.” In other words, ordinarily sense data block out psi data
and by blocking out sense data we let in psi data. This an interesting claim
coming only a few paragraphs after the authors claim that the term 'psi'
does not connote "anything about ... underlying mechanisms."

Parapsychologist Susan Blackmore
claims that the psi-conducive claim has never been proven (2003, p. 298). Indeed, since
we have no idea how psi works, the best that can be said is that there have
been some telepathy experiments where senders or receivers have been in a
state of reduced sensory input, such as the Maimonides dream telepathy
experiments, which have shown some apparent success. However, that success
has been met with some serious criticism (Hansel 1989; Hyman 1989; Marks
2000). It is possible
that sensory deprived states are not psi-conducive states, but are
high suggestibility or hallucination states. We know that sensory deprivation stimulates auditory and
visual hallucinations. We know that hypnosis works especially well with
suggestible and fantasy-prone imaginations. Perceptions under alleged
psi-conducive conditions are better explained as being generated by the
imagination or by the brain itself rather than by some external, psi-based, stimulus.

On the contrary, say Bem and Honorton,
who write:

Historically, psi has often been associated with meditation, hypnosis,
dreaming, and other naturally occurring or deliberately induced
altered
states of consciousness. For example, the view that psi phenomena can
occur during meditation is expressed in most classical texts on meditative
techniques; the belief that hypnosis is a psi-conducive state dates all
the way back to the days of early mesmerism (Dingwall, 1968); and
cross-cultural surveys indicate that most reported "real-life" psi
experiences are mediated through dreams (Green, 1960; Prasad &
Stevenson, 1968; L. E. Rhine, 1962; Sannwald, 1959). There are now reports
of experimental evidence consistent with these anecdotal observations. For
example, several laboratory investigators have reported that meditation
facilitates psi performance (Honorton, 1977). A meta-analysis of 25
experiments on hypnosis and psi conducted between 1945 and 1981 in 10
different laboratories suggests that hypnotic induction may also
facilitate psi performance (Schechter, 1984). And dream-mediated psi was
reported in a series of experiments conducted at Maimonides Medical Center
in New York and published between 1966 and 1972 (Child, 1985; Ullman,
Krippner, &h; Vaughan, 1973). (Bem and Charles Honorton: 1994)

In the Maimonides dream studies, two subjects—a
"receiver" and a "sender"—spent the night in a sleep laboratory. The
receiver's brainwaves and eye movements were monitored as he or she slept
in an isolated room. When the receiver entered a period of REM sleep, the
experimenter pressed a buzzer that signaled the sender--under the
supervision of a second experimenter--to begin a sending period. The
sender would then concentrate on a randomly chosen picture (the "target")
with the goal of influencing the content of the receiver's dream.

Toward the end of the REM period, the receiver was awakened and asked
to describe any dream just experienced. This procedure was repeated
throughout the night with the same target. A transcription of the
receiver's dream reports was given to outside judges who blindly rated the
similarity of the night's dreams to several pictures, including the
target.

This is not the place to try to refute all these claims, so I will limit
myself to a comment on the Maimonides dream telepathy experiments. These
experiments were done in such a way that ambiguous data could easily be
retrofitted to support the telepathy hypothesis. For example, in one
experiment the target was Max Beckman’s Descent from the Cross.
The experimenters and Dean Radin considered the telepathy a success because
the receiver dreamt twice about Winston Churchill. Radin writes: “Note the
symbolic relevance of ‘church-hill’ in the reported dream” (Radin 1997: 70).
“The overall hit rate is seen to be 63 percent...The 95 percent confidence
interval clearly excludes the chance expected hit rate of 50 percent” (Radin
1997: 71). This hit rate seems more indicative of the retrofitting talents
of the experimenters than of the psychic abilities of the test subjects.

ganzfeld and
psi-conducive states

The ganzfeld experiments
were designed with the psi-conducive state in mind. While the ganzfeld experiments themselves do not allow for
the kind of loose
interpretation as to what counts as a "hit" that went on in the dream
telepathy experiments, some ganzfeld researchers are
quite impressed by similar ambiguities.

For example, here is a transcript of a verbal description made by a
receiver in an autoganzfeld experiment. It was taken from (a now defunct
page from) Dr. Rick
Berger's website on the ganzfeld. Berger developed the
autoganzfeld.

I see the Lincoln Memorial...
And Abraham Lincoln sitting there... It's
the 4th of July... All kinds of fireworks...
Now I'm at Valley Forge... There are
fireworks... And I think of bombs
bursting in the air... And Francis Scott
Key... And Charleston...

There are quite a few images that would "match" this description, since
the description itself contains at least eight distinct images (the
Lincoln memorial, Lincoln, 4th of July, fireworks, Valley Forge, bombs,
Francis Scott Key, Charleston) to which one could easily add a couple
more, such as the American flag, the star spangled banner, and, oh yes,
George Washington, which was the image selected as most closely resembling
the verbal description. Berger thinks that these impressions may have been
generated by the picture of George Washington that the sender was
concentrating on. However, there might
be a dozen other reasons why the receiver envisaged what he did.